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Daily Archives: May 5, 2014

We concentrate so much on new full-length releases on this site that sometimes things just as important slip past us. It’s not on purpose. There are so damn many new records released each week that it’s even hard keeping up with all of those, and sometimes the smaller releases don’t get their just due. We’re going to make a conscious effort to change that starting today.

There have been some pretty strong 7-inch and 10-inch recordings that have come out the past few weeks, and we want to take a look at some of those today. Obviously vinyl is very much alive and well (even if people totally out of the loop think it’s a trend or a time warp), and that is very evident by the metal world. Pretty much each weekend I peruse my local record shops, and I’m always finding tons of new vinyl to consider. It’s become overwhelming just because my wallet won’t allow me to grab as much as I want, but it’s a fun problem to have. Grabbing a few 7-inchers or even a 10-incher is a fun way to get some new music but not burn a hole in your wallet. While there are plenty more new releases out there right now, we wanted to take a look at these three records that have been in regular rotation around here.

We’ll start off the beefiest of these releases, that being the new 10-inch release that brings together Denver maulers Primitive Man and Danish killers Hexis. Each band contributes one song for this thing, and each group’s submission is ugly, menacing, and not concerned for your well-being. This thing will maul and drub you, each side of it, as if you are being forced into submission, and chances are when the record is over, it’s not going to improve your mood a whole lot. It’ll probably make you feel even more aggravated than you already are, and who said that’s a bad thing?

Primitive Man get going with “When Getting High Is Not Enough,” a title that should tell you all you need to know about the murk and punishment behind this song. The track is sludgy and mean, but also spacious in spots where they let some atmosphere into the dank depression. The vocals are menacing and monstrous, the pace eventually kicks up and ignites, and the charging, feedback-ridden guitars leave scars and burn marks. Hexis respond with “Excrucio,” a track draped in black doom and an inescapable sense of grimness. The vocals are ugly, and the guitars settle in like a vicious storm intent on saturating everything. Noise boils over, and a thick dose of drone emerges to enact a campaign of terror. The sound continues to build, creating a black wall of madness, with the final moments a gut-wrenching demolition. These two bands work well together, and they will make you utterly miserable.

Another split effort, one that was part of a three-release series for Record Store Day, comes to us from two of the more exciting new bands in extreme music right now. A389 put out a series with bands covering songs that pay homage to the pioneers of heavy music or whatever inspired them to create, and the one I dig most teamed up Noisem, who just ripped the hell out of Stage AE in Pittsburgh in early April, and Occultist, who will obliterate your senses. Both of these bands have become two of my modern favorites, and if you want to find music that can kick your lazy ass into gear, you would do well to indulge in Noisem and Occultist. While we’re only looking extensively at this record, there other two split 7-inchers of more than worth your time, including one pairing Full of Hell and Psywarfare and the other combining Integrity and Vegas.

Noisem properly pay homage to Repulsion, a band whose influence you certainly can hear in their sound and on their killer debut record “Agony Defined.” Here, they rip through “Slaughter of the Innocent,” treating is with respect but also adding their own violent flare, making sure it is blistering and thrashy, with vocalist Tyler Carnes sounding raspier than usual. It’s a violent, savage tribute, and Repulsion fans should receive this well. Occultist whip out a devastating version of the Plasmatics’ “The Damned,” with vocalist Kerry Zylstra doing a fine job in the Wendy O. Williams role, which is no easy task. The band puts a rock and roll swagger on the song, quite naturally, but they also inject some of their own sludge and hardcore fury into the track, making it a firehouse of a serving. Both of these bands are great and highly recommended, so if you haven’t checked them out yet, get off your ass, son.

We conclude with Ruine, a new group that combines members of black metal heathens Mutilation Rites and grindcore freaks Magrudergrind in a combo that … isn’t nearly as fast as you might think from who’s involved. But that’s not a negative whatsoever, as this group is an awesome, sludgy, miserable unit that could make you want to step into traffic after a bad day. The two songs on their “Winter 2014” 7-inch release are drubbing, crushing, and full of darkness, and these guys have a pretty interesting thing going on here that I’m curious to hear more of as they work their way into the future.

We kick off with “Decades of Sorrow,” a trudging dose of black doom, where George Paul’s vocals are instantly recognizable and as shrouded in mystery as they are on Mutilation Rites albums. The track is wholly violent, but there are melodies that run through it as well, giving it a weird glistening that makes you tilt your head. The back end is riffy as hell, with Avi Kulawy joining with Paul to shred you and sting your ear drums. “Regression” is slow driving and ugly, with Justin Ennis’ drums setting a devious pace that instills evil into the track. The vocals are just not human, as they sound like shrieks of pain that no living being could replicate or comprehend, and the music is thrashy, mucky, and keeps clubbing and threatening right until it ends, finally giving you mercy. This is one hell of a bruising band, and whatever they do in the future we will consume with great interest.